StarCraft  Minea's Story
by Seraphim.Saga
Summary: The tales of a ghost under Raynor's command  Pt.3 Addendum Flex
1. Predators 1

**Minea's Story**

**Ch.1 - Predators.**

For many hours now all Minea could think of was the burning sensation in her chest as she ran to her target, a collection of Hatcheries in close proximity to one another. All five centered around a spawning pool. numerous overlords floated around in the sky above as well. These hatcheries were supplying zerglings by the thousands to the battleground several miles to the west. It had to go.

Minea had three mission objectives: Find them,assess their strength and destroy them. "how the hell am I going to that?" she said out loud and continued looking at the targets through her tech visor, revealing over a hundred overlords. This number made her uncomfortable as she could only guess at the number of zerglings near the hatcheries and as she raised her trusty old C-10 to look through the scope her unit tracker went insane and only showed ? as a number. "Great" she muttered there has to be over nine thousand zerglings down there and all she had was nine clips of sniper rounds and a clip of lockdown rounds, and even if she cloaked the overlords would still spot her. No way in without detection and no weapon good enough to destroy all of them even if there was. "great" she muttered again and lowered her C-10, removing her tech visor showed her a better overview of what the Surroundings looked like in the sunset. Forty minutes till sundown she thought.

She spent a good ten minutes observing the area, planing attack routes but ended up discarding them all since she would not live long enough to use them. This of course lead to her questioning her own reasoning skills at having taken the job in the first place. one c-10 rifle was not enough, period. So why had she..."TacCom calling ghost" her ear piece suddenly spoke almost making her drop the rifle in her hands.

Reaching up with one shaky hand she lightly tapped the comm. and spoke. "Ghost reporting"

"We have assessed the situation and are sending Predators to your location, One of them are carrying a tac nuke."

"Predators? What's a predator, some kind of new weapon?"

"Affirmative, ETA is thirty minutes. you'll receive further instructions upon arrival. TacCom out."

After closing the link with command the ghost turned her attention back to the problem at hand. On the bright side a nuke would be great for dealing with the hatcheries but the nine thousand plus zerglings would not let any ground troops get close enough to to be useful, let alone arm the nuke, and because the zerg owned the sky delivering it via air strike was out of the question. Those Predators better be as good a hunters as she hoped or this would be a short campaign.

The sunset was just as beautiful on this world as it was on any other with it's red sky and dimming light. Minea's reverie was cut short when she heard the rhythmic sound of running feet approach her from behind. Thinking that the zerg had some how found her she turned to face the threat. However the things that silently approached her now was clearly not zerg but giant cats made out of metal. They resembled Cybercats but were bigger and had more soft curves making it look more feline than robotic weapon.

Once she got over the shock she tapped the comm. "Lieutenant Mnemosyne calling TacCom" she waited a few secons for the reply to patch her through to her CO.

Instead of asking why they sent Cybercats to her she simply stated her orders."Predators have arrived! Awaiting instructions." she kept her voice low and calm as the nine cats stealthily positioned themself around her, defending her. They watched their surroundings with great care as if they were protecting their weakest member of the pack from harm. None of their behaviour passed her by unnoticed and she decided that a more thourogh explenation would be wellcome once this mission was completed.

Her comm. came to life again and a rushed, definitely geeky voice started speaking." Uh, hello? Can you hear me? I am Dr. Egon Stetmann." Minea sighed and replied to the Hyperion's head scientist. "I don't need you to explain, professor, just tell me what they can do and how to command them." She had spoken to the man enough times to know that the fastest way to get what she wanted from him was to give him clear and precise orders.

"Ah, yes. Well they are pack hunters by nature so establishing leadership is essential to lead them in a combat..." "PROFESSOR, tell me only how to lead them and skip the rest." she interrupted him in a hurried tone. Night was here and she didn't want to give the zerg more advantage then they already had. Listening to Stetmann explaining how smart he was did not help anyone, except for, perhaps, Stetmann himself. "Ah, uh sure, simple, I can do that." Minea seriously doubted him. "They are psychic telepaths, equipped with lightning field burst generators for hard AoE fighting. One thing though, before you cut me off again, these cats are nothing like the cybercats of old. The predators are smart...Just so you know."

"Thank you, Professor. That will be all." She closed the line with TacCom and turned her head to look at the bio-mechanical weapons of war currently surrounding her. So you guys are telepathic huh... let's find out how much then.


	2. Predators 2

High up on a cliff Minea had a really good view of the battle between the zerglings and the nine predators. And the predators lightning field ability killed them by the dozen. thus they were making good progress toward their goal. The one carrying the nuke was to throw itself into the spawning pool and then detonate its payload. This would completely destroy it and the hatcheries around it. Hopefully destroying as many zerg as possible at the same time.

From the high ground the ghost had a vital objective to fulfill, namely AA. Denying any and all airborne zerg units from killing the predators was considerably harder then she was comfortable with as the swarm owned the sky. Therefore only two clips of ammo remained, and the zerg fliers started getting numerous, something had to give or the predators would be left without support.

Concentrating hard Minea charged the 20mm Sniper round in her C-10 canister rifle and took aim at a close formation of mutalisks and pulled the trigger. The super heated round left a blue trail behind as it trekked across the sky. Just before it hit the first zerg Minea released the psionic power contained in it. immediately the airborne, deadly projectile shattered, spreading shrapnel across the flight of mutalisks. They were thorn to shreds and fell from the sky in bloody clumps, some crushing the small zerglings on impact with the ground.

Down at the battle between the predators and the army of zerglings, the predators had started to fight even faster and harder, seemingly like a pack of wild animals. They were far from unorganized, nor were they uncoordinated. Their telepathic link with Minea gave them a very good overview of the battle, enabling them to change the tactics to fight better whenever the need arose.

As all of them fought united as one, the zerg numbers mattered little to them. They where far superior at close combat and more agile then their opponents, thus they reached the center of the hatcheries cluster in less then ten minutes of combat. Without losing a single unit, though they were pretty bashed up by now. quickly the predator carrying the nuke jumped into the slimy sludge that was the spawning pool. On it's way down it armed the nuke and set the counter to ten minutes, telepathically informing Minea of it's accomplished goal.

Immediately the Nuke carrying predator shut down all systems in order to avoid discovery, It's last thought ordered the rest of the pack to regroup with their pack leader. The battered shapes of the remaining eight turned and started for the cliff when a loud roar followed by heavy thuds announced the presence of a Ultralisk. As it raced towards the predators it crushed zerglings under it's massive feet.

Calmly, Minea loaded the last round into the C-10 and began charging it with psionic energy. Raising the scope to her eyes gave her a splendid view of it's incredibly ugly head. Instantly the scope computer began calculating range, elevation, humidity and a bunch of other factors that would or could affect the bullet trajectory. Minea remained calm as the giant death machine got closer and closer to the predators.

Stay! She sent through the telepathic link to them. Let it come, trust me. And they did, only fighting the zerglings nearest to them instead of running away from the massive threat. The last shot had to count, and she didn't want to take a chance with it. Soon she reached the end of what her psionic power could pump into a single rifle round. All she had to do was lightly press the trigger to send the empowered round on a collision course with the Ultralisk's head, more precisely it's left eye. Instantly the round seamed to teleport across the distance between them, but instead of shattering it next to the head she waited that extra thousand of a second to let it enter the eye. What followed looked like balloon inflating and then breaking. The massive force tore the head off and sent it crashing into the ground. The very dead creature came to a halt only a few feet from the closest predator and managed to crush some more unlucky zerglings at the same time. Minea's rifle melted in the aftershock and she had to throw it away. She was out of ammo anyway so it was not really a loss. And she did want to have a look at those new C-20A's anyway.

Come! She sent trough the mental link, making all of them run to her, followed by the horde of zerglings that remained. Only now did Minea spot the timer for the nuke. And what she saw was bad, really bad. Only six minutes left, not enough to escape on foot. And even if she could somehow run fast enough the zerglings would catch up to her before then.

"look out, sky-high inbound. ETA twelve second and counting. Happy hunting Lieutenant Mnemosyne." The Message didn't come from the Hyperion TacCom but instead it sounded as if it came from the Jackson's Revenge battlecruiser. Looking up She spotted the telltale sign of a descending drop pod. She started running to it's drop point and got there just in time to see it shed its shell and reveal a Vulture hover bike in a black pain scheme complete with ion thrusters. "Thanks for the ride boys. I'll need it to get away from that nuke." "We thought so, lieutenant. Thats why we sent down Raynor's own Vulture for you. Don't scratch it...Please. He wouldn't like that. Good luck, Jackson's Revenge, out."

Raynor's own? She got on and started it up. The raw power of it's way too big engines roared happily. With a big smile she pushed the visor back over her eyes and hit the thrusters as hard a she could, the force of the acceleration only made her smile bigger. On her side the Predators had finally caught up with her and had no problem in keeping up with her on their escape from the nuke.

Once the zerglings realized that they had lost their pray they returned to the hatcheries to join their kin in feasting on the corpse of the fallen ultralisk. none of them noted the still form of the ninth predator quietly counting down to the end.

When the timer showed thirty seconds left Minea stopped and turned the vulture around to be able to see the destruction of the zerg and the completion of their objectives. On a small screen, a surveillance drone left at the cliff side showed the writhing mass of zerglings swarming over the dead ultralisk. In a moment of sadistical satisfaction she shared her view with the predators. A sense of excitement floated back to her from the mental link and it disturbed her slightly by how ...human the feeling was. Learning more about the predators was top priority once she had some free time on hand.

Suddenly the dark night sky was lit up like bright day followed by a loud whomp and a big bang, the telltale sign of a nuke. A mushroom cloud soon filled the night sky and a feeling of joy not her own filled her mind. Minea quickly closed her mind from the predators telepathic link. Not really trusting the battered but still lethal machines she stayed very still for several seconds before shaking the feeling of the alien thoughts from her mind.

"Ghost reporting, Mission complete. The payload has been delivered and the cluster has been destroyed. Requesting further orders."

Raynor himself answered her from his spot at the Hyperion bridge. "I see that Lieutenant. Now get back to the LZ as fast as possible. And don't scratch my Vulture, It's been with me for years." "Under stood commander. No scratches." And with that she turned the vehicle around and gunned the engines towards the LZ.

Her mind's shield slipped half way there and again she felt the presence of the predators on her mind. This time it wasn't invasive but instead she felt strained, as if she was running as fast as possible, or just beyond. Her eyes widened when she realized that the predators were getting tired running so fast and she slowed down to a more controlled pace. Instantly a feeling of relief washed over her as the slower pace allowed the predators a more relaxed running style.

Curious about how deep the mind of the predators were she let her telepathic powers flow freely into their minds. immediately she saw everything around her, smelled all, sensed all heard all and felt all. And in that moment of clarity all of her fear washed away. This is what the Protos Khala must feel like. All joined in one union, yet each individual controlled themselves.

Maneuvering the rickety, and in dire need of maintenance, vulture she soon saw the Raider's drop ships come into view, one still standing with it's cargo doors open, awaiting their return. Once inside it she slipped out of the seat and sat down in the aisle in the middle of the seats. The predators closed in on her and lay down around her. All the time maintaining the psychic link to their mistress. As she learned all there was to know about their minds, they learned all of hers. This deep link would remain for the remainder of their life.


	3. Predators 3

**Author's note**

There are some things in this chapter that is not entirely true to the SC lore. How and why will be told in another story. One thing of note is psionic color. Khala is blue, the Void is green and Terran psionics make Khaydarin Crystals unstable and produces a pink response. Otherwise it's blue. Spectres exposure to Terrazine and Jorium make it red. This will be further explained in another story.

"Jump" and " "Dive" are terms used to describe how Terran and Protoss ships enters Warp Space. Terrans must "jump" into it whilst the more advanced Protoss simply "dives" into it. Zerg jumps across space via Warp Holes. Dark Templar travels through the Void. Only the Xel'naga properly understood the Void.

"Two ghosts". Minea is one of them, the other hasn't appeared yet.

The Alliance is from Alternity: StarCraft Edition

Mojo is a hero unit from Enslavers.

"Templar" Yes I know, it will be told later.

* * *

><p>Stacking a pile of research notes on top of each other was a bad idea. Adding a box full of data chips was worse, but trying to walk while carrying it all was just plain dumb. Not because of the risk of walking into someone or into a wall, as a ghost that just didn't happen, but because the data chips were phenomenally frail and touchy. Dropping them would result in a trip back to the Hyperion lab and it's caretaker, Professor Egon Stetmann. And if there was one thing Minea wanted to avoid, it would be talking to a man whose so smart he can't comprehend how "not smart" the rest of them were. Not that she didn't appreciate all the hard work he did to help the raiders keep their edge, but sometimes she just wanted to punch him. The reason why that had not happened yet was probably because he would explain how the energy in the fist would increase in relation to the mass of said fist and the speed with which it approached his face.<p>

Minea got that very vivid thought from the engineer that walked by as she left his laboratory. Said engineer continued by cursing those infernal predators that managed to eat his toolbox when he was trying to repair their damage.

Behave you. They are trying to fix your wounds. Her telepathic command was countered by something her brain translated with: But he had cold Hands. Their very fake, feigned innocence, put a very big smile on her face and as she made her way through the corridors towards her room she whistled a happy tune. Hyperion's captain, Matt Horner passed her by. He just stopped and turned around to look at the disappearingform of the ghost.

Stepping on to the bridge he spotted his CO and had to ask, lest the question haunt him for ever. " Hey, Jim. If I were to say that I just passed one of our ghost just now, who was smiling like someone told her the best joke ever and whistled a happy tune whilst carrying what looked like Stetmann's research into her room, what would you make of it?"

For several long second James Raynor didn't move. Then he looked up at his second-in-command. "Well, either she scored, or she killed someone." He scratched his beard. "Those would be my bets, but since no one on this ship would be dumb enough to come any where near a ghost, and no one has been reported dead yet, there's a high chance that I could be wrong."

"Glad to see that your sense of humor is intact sir." Matt replied before focusing on the tactical overview table. The leaders of the Raiders had a job to do and a dominion to overthrow, there was no rest for the revolution.

"By the way, Matt. One of your contact's called while you were sleeping, said something about tactical data on military transports. You should take a look at it when you have a chance, OK?" And with that , Raynor went back to studying the star map. This system wasn't safe and when things went south he wanted to be ready.

Back in her room, Minea had just finished putting all of Stetmann's research into piles, separated by one of three terms. One consisted of things she might understand, Two was filled with things that her computer could help her understand. The third group was placed next to a word book because every second word was written in some kind of smart people's code, reserved for the very elite and, most likely smug about it, scientists the sector had to offer.

The ship-wide comm. came to life, and Raynor's voice came with a simple message: "Prepare for warp in five minutes, we're jumping to Jaandara System, Planet Deia II. ETA is three days, secure your selves." and with that, all became quiet again, at least for the larger part of three seconds, after which every one on the ship started prepping for the jump.

The comm. came on again and announced the countdown. "On my mark, ready for jump. Three, two, one, mark." A sensation like, jumping from a really high place into an even deeper hole filled Minea's mind as the warp engines pushed the ship into warp space. Soon the ship calmed down and she could go back to reading the data on the predators.

Research log: Zerg Bio technology.

Entry 12-1839

From nothing, the zerg tissue has formed a complex neural network. If it develops muscle tissue next then I fear that I must find a way to subdue it.

Entry 12-1840

It has reversed it's development. How or why is beyond me. Maybe it recognized my concern with it's development. I will try to "will" it's next development into a bone structure. I'm not psychic but maybe the sample has some other means to recognize a threat.

Entry 13 -0012

By mistake, I have made a huge breakthrough in my zerg research. If zerg tissue is introduced to living creatures then the zerg Hyper evolutionary virus (H.E.V.) will cause massive mutation and dangerous side effects. BUT, if I add bio-samples from other creatures to the zerg tissue then the effect is the opposite. For example: the Gyndh is a small rodent with thick fur. Adding it's blood to the zerg sample caused it to shrink in size and grow fur. This is great news for us. Now all I have to do is find some practical use for it.

Entry 19-4472

After the War Pigs brought us the remains of the Cybercats the screaming skulls used against them, I've been thinking. Can I somehow combine these two and make something more of it? That would be great.

Entry 19-5000

The Bengalaas is a highly intelligent felinoid life-form native to Aiur. They are great pack hunters and are capable of taking down pray many times bigger then them selves. If I can combine their strength with the zerg and then put the new zerg tissue into the robotic Cybercats, then we could gain a very potent anti-zerg weapon. Or it turns against us and kill us all... Need to make sure that doesn't happen...EVER.

Entry 20-0000

The new zerg sample seams to have failed. Combining the Bengalaas with the zerg resulted in nothing more than a bony spinal cord and a complex nervous system, all mashed up in a pile of bloody tissue. Completely useless.

Entry 20-0001

I was wrong! By removing the mechanical "intestines" from the Cybercats and replacing them with the zerg parts, I have gained knowledge of how the zerg adapts to new situations. This is great, now I understand how the zerg assimilated other species in order to evolve.

Entry 20-0011

The new cybercat is complete. In just over a weeks time the spinal cord and nervous system has attached itself to the mechanical body. It has so far only displayed light movement but that was enough to prove my theory. Now with the new cybernetic "brain", infested by the zerg it will never come under the control of the swarm, nor can a particularly powerful psychic mind-control it. And you can't hack a physical biological brain. I will try to make these new Cybercats even more lethal by adding that impressive energy discharge mechanic that the zerg specimen has recently displayed. Can I blend these two zerg strains into one powerful creature?

Entry 20-0014

Yes I can! Down in a holding cell there is now the first of a new breed of cybercats. These new infantry hunters need a new name. By next week there'll be nine completed units ready for field testing. All I need now is someone willing to trust me enough. On a side note. The new cybercat has a confirmed weak telepathic ability. Maybe I should see if any of our ghosts are willing to try them.

As Minea reached for a new data sheet to read she became aware of a presence outside her door. Then a light knock followed by a voice. "Lieutenant Mnemosyne, there's been a message for you. Your home world has come under attack by Dominion forces."

Minea's heart almost stopped. Her home world? It was located so far beyond the fringe that it hardly even belonged to the Korpulu sector. Why would Mengsk send troops out there? She realized that the man was still standing by her door and simply thanked him for telling her of this.

Once Minea got to the Hyperion bridge she spoke with Raynor about this message.

"I understand, Minea. And I agree that it's worrying that the Dominion has gotten so far from their core worlds." Raynor walked over to the star map and brought up the fringe worlds. Then he tapped a dark spot at the very edge of the table. The Mieu system was probably the single most isolated Terran world in Korpulu, located so far from the shipping lanes that one could only find it if they already knew of it. Or like the Raiders, by mistake.

"We're here, on the other side of the sector. A jump through warp space will take a week to get there. Matt do we have any forces over there?" From the tactics table, Matt thought about it and then shook his head. "No sir, I don't think so. The Alliance is over here on our side gathering resources, and the Jackson's Revenge is receiving extensive repairs right now." Matt shook his head and went back to studying the data in front of him. "Maybe Mojo's Boys are in that area? It's worth checking out."

"Good idea Matt." Raynor turned to the communication officer and told him to get the Super Carrier Dhal'Jo, Flagship of the Protos Preator Mojo, on screen. Soon the face of a proud and strong protoss warrior looked back at them from the console.

"This is the Dhal'Jo, flagship of Mojo. Who seeks me?" Raynor stepped up so that the preator could see him. "Hey there, Mojo. How have you been?" At this Mojo looked surprised. He had clearly not expected the former Marshall to contact him. "Friend Raynor, Your reputation among the protoss makes you a welcome sight to my old eyes. To what do I owe this call?"

"Do you remember that little colony from a few years ago, you know, the one where you found two ghosts?"

"Yes, I do. They are personal friends of me and my crew. Why do you ask?"

"A Dominion fleet has attacked them, and we are too far away to be able to help. I was wondering if you were any where near the Mieu system? If so, then would you lend them your help?"

"It would be an honor to. I will send my fleet there immediately."

Minea stepped in front of the screen and waved her hand at her friend. "Thank you Mojo, it means a lot to me." She then stepped back to allow Raynor to continue the conversation.

"Until we meet again, young templar, be safe and may all enemies fall before you in glorious battle."

Raynor turned around to look at his ghost. "Templar? since when have the protoss refereed to a ghost as a templar?" Minea raised her left arm and a warp blade materialized, covering her lower arm and extending about two feet. It was bright pink.

"Let's just say that, when you're traveling with a group of battle hungry zealots and dark templar, you pick up a skill or two." With that she released the psionic power that formed her blade. It dissipated into mist and then nothing.

Now Raynor studied her carefully, looking for signs of exhaustion. And there were signs to see, like the sweat on her forehead. And her slightly labored breathing. This did not pass Mojo by, and he commented on it. " It takes years of practice for the protoss to learn how to summon our pis blades and keep them summoned. The fact that you were able to summon your own is simply astounding. Even after several years of traveling with your kind do I find my self reevaluating your potential. You have proven to be strong allies of the protos." Raynor turned back to the screen. "I wont keep you any longer Preator, good luck . En taro Tassadar."

"En taro Tassadar, friend Raynor." The screen went black as the protoss fleet dived into Warp space.

"Anyway, Minea. Those predators down in the armory could use some fine-tuning before I let Stetmann mass produce them. Why don't you head down there and help Swann fix them? You've got about two hours, then I want a full report."

"Yes sir." She left the bridge after that, feeling a lot better knowing that Mojo would handle the Dominion.

Once she got down to the armory, Swann called her to him. The predators had been separated from their armor, showing their skeleton like internal mechanics. Swann pointed at it and demanded to know why there was living tissue inside them.

"Do you know of the Bengalaas? It's a big cat from Aiur. Stetmann found a way of putting their unique hunting skills to practical use in the predator." Minea smiled at the Chief engineer. It would be best not to mention the zerg part at this point or he would throw them out of the airlock.

Swann just stared at the ghost, too stunned to speak. Them he seamed to shake the shock away and get back on track. "So your telling me that these things are alive? Thats just great. If you want to keep them, their yours. But I ain't cleaning up after them." The rough engineer then walked over to a work bench where there was a fairly large assortment of various metal pieces.

"Any way, ignoring the fact that we need to hire a vet for those things, here's the deal. After going through the combat logs and the damage they've taken I've made some changes to the frame work and the exoskeleton. The new Vanadium Plating and Regenerative Bio-Steel science-boy made will probably make them darn near invulnerable to anything smaller than a tank round. And these new Ultra Capacitors will make them attack faster. Oh, and I upgraded the titanium claws to last longer. They won't break when they hit anything with armor now." Swann made a gesture with his claw in the direction of the rest of the predators. "I'll be done with the upgrades in a few days so just hang tight and wait for it OK."

As Minea turned to leave she remembered the "It ate my tool box" incident and had to ask. "Did one of them really eat a tool box?" Swann looked up. "Yeah, spat it out in pieces too. Kachinksy had a fit. Apparently that was his lucky tool box or something. Stormed out shouting things I won't repeat in a lady's presence." She didn't have to read his mind to know that he found the whole thing hilarious, and she bet that the story would be the highlight down in the Cantina later tonight.

"Do you need anything from me or can I go and make my report now?"

Nah, I got this. You go give Cowboy his briefing. Say hi from me."

"Will do, see ya." And Minea left the armory. She got the notes from her room and made her way to one of the few briefing rooms aboard the Hyperion. An hour later Raynor and Matt walked in and sat down.

"Commander, Captain." She acknowledge the two leaders of the Raiders. "I have finished my report now. The full specs was uploaded to your terminals for your reading at a better time. Here you will get only a light review, but if you want me to I can expand it."

Matt was the one to speak first. "A light overview will do Lieutenant, we'll look at the files later."

"Understood, Captain. Let's begin then. The Anti-Infantry specialist unit, designated as Predator, has proven to be robust and efficient against large numbers of small zerg. It's main weapon is a lightning field generator capable of harming any enemy units in close proximity. It is capable of recognizing friends from foes and will not strike an ally. In combat it will use titanium claws and fangs to maximize damage. Swann reports that he will exchange the first generation of claws with stronger ones. He will also replace the general Neosteel with the new armor Professor Stetmann made, the Vanadium Plate, Regenerative Bio-Steel. The new ultra Capacitors will increase the general weapon speed so they can match the zerglings in ferocity." She made a pause so that Raynor and Matt could flip through the pages on their data screens.

Raynor tapped his screen and turned it around to show her the data for the lightning field. "Will this work on Terran and Protoss units?"

"Yes. It will even hurt mechanical units like tanks and stalkers."

Now it was Matt's turn. "It says here that they are telepathic, explain please.

The predator is essentially a zerg unit under our command. The cybernetic brain protects them from being assimilated into the swarm and you can't dominate them either. The only use for their telepathy is to enhance their pack hunter skills, and to receive orders from a psychic commander, like a ghost or a spectre. The cybernetic brain prevents them from taking orders from enemy units."

Raynor listened closely whilst flipping through the pages until he came to the end. "Tell me Minea, what would you use them for, and I want to know how expensive they are."

"Unit cost is slightly to the expensive side, no ranged attack makes them exposed to air units, but manufacturing them costs about a hundred minerals and vespene each. All the heavy upgrades increased their power but it also made them expensive. Their most effective use would probably be as perimeter guardians and supply line destroyers."

Matt nodded, his tactical mind busy calculating how and where to insert them. Raynor on the other hand was trying to shift through all the pages in record time, only stopping when he spotted something interesting. He spotted the time and decided that this meeting had gone on long enough. "If that was all Lieutenant then you're free to go."

"Two things Commander. One, Swann says hi, and two, may I keep the first pack as my personal guards?" Raynor had to look away from the pleading eyes of the female ghost and simply said yes before leaving. Matt was too busy reading the data files to notice but still left with Raynor at the same time.


	4. Ghosts and Ghosts? 1

**Chapter 2 Ghosts and ...Ghosts?**

"You wanted to speak with me sir?"

Yes, good that you could come so soon. We have received some rumors from one of our sources about some hidden Dominion research on Ghorith IV. We are heading there as soon as we get the Hyperion repaired." Raynor took a swipe of his drink and continued. "Our friends here at the Zero Deep Space Station are doing their best to keep her in good shape, but just like us, they are running out of supplies. Being freelance sounds great on paper but it's a lot of work if you want to stay on top." Raynor took another swipe and sat down in the captains chair. "Matt, how much Vespene we've got left?"

"Enough for two weeks, but then we have to make port and restock. With the Dominion after us that will be tricky."

"Anyway, Lieutenant. I want you and your partner ready for what is to come. If it's as bad as we think it is, then you will have to go in alone with minimal backup."

"I understand commander."

Raynor left the Bridge. Probably heading for the cantina to speak with Tykus. Minea turned to Matthew Horner, who was busy reading the star map. "Dismissed, Lieutenant."

It was lunch when the Hyperion made it's jump to the Epsilon system. The entire trip would take about four hours, give or take, and place them right next to the Hourst system where the Dominion had decided to park it's fleet of Battlecruisers recently. Not the best of places to be but anything that put a stick into the Dominion clockwork was worth considering.

After lunch Minea headed over to the crew compartment to see if she could track down her partner, Sana. The woman was three years her senior and possessed a wast psionic reserve, although one which she never could learn to master. It caused some unfortunate accidents when complex maneuvers or uses was needed but in return, she never got tired, mostly.

Minea, on the other hand, had a much smaller reserve of power but was so good at using this that even the Protoss said she was a natural. It had been one of the reasons why they had trained her. They had trained Sana too but for the opposite reason, her enormous amount of power. And while Sana was many times more powerful at the things she could do, Minea could do so much more. Brains and Brawns.

Sana's room was empty so she headed for the gym instead. It was filled with Raiders doing exercises. And one half-naked woman currently lifting every single dumbbell in the room.

At the same time.

"Minea, hi. I'm just about to break my old record of lifting 4000 Kilos of scrap metal." She reached out her right hand and another dumbbell floated into the air. "There, thats 28 dumbbells with 150 kilos on each. thats like, what, 4200?" Minea did some quick head counting. "Yeah, it is. Congratulations. Now get over here, we've got a mission from the commander." Sana didn't seem to hear her as she was to busy with fainting from the enormous strain the weight was putting on her mind.

With a loud crash, all the equipment came under the control of gravity again and made short work of the distance between the gear and the floor. Sana was panting like mad, trying to get as much oxygen into her lungs as she could in as short a time as possible. She had avoided the embarrassment of fainting but that didn't mean she was any better of. "Remind me never to do that again, Min."

"Righhht..." was all Minea could answer. Last week when she had cleared 4000 she had said the exact same thing just before fainting. She walked up to the tired woman and picked her up. "come on Sana. Lets get you some sleep. I'll need you rested and ready to go by tonight." Carrying her partner out of the gym would no doubt lead to stories told of things they had never done, so she resolved to drag the mostly unconscious woman to her room.

"All right, listen up ladies. As you'll be dropped off a long way from the target, damn those air defenses, you'll need some sort of ride. This here is a remodeled bike, that somehow made it's way aboard this ship after our stunt on Korhal..." Engineer Swann looked at Milo Kachinsky suspiciously when he said that. "Anyway, now I've got a use for them. Changed the tires, threw out the engine and scrapped the built in GPS. Made it more resistant and tough, slapped on a few Vanadium plates and put in a new engine that doesn't run on Vespene and here ya go. I call it the Cruiser. It'll get you there in next to no time. And because there's no Vespene in it they can't track you. Engine's silent. You can't even tell that this one here's running can you?"

Both ghosts listened but only the general sound of the armory were heard. "Can you paint it in something less reflective then clean steel?" Sana's question was not a joke as the Cruisers didn't have a scrap of paint on them. They looked like a pair of armored motorcycles. Probably because they were.

"You'll be doing a drop in these two bikes so get to know them, OK. As for your equipment, here." He tossed a list of ammunition to Minea. "New ammo for you. Check it out and tell me what you want to bring with you. Oh, and I've got a gift for you. Here." Swann picked up a crate from the floor. "The new C-20A SpecOps. You'll love this one. Unlike the previous generation it's got a bullpup configuration. Increases the barrel lenght without changing the size. The new scope is fantastic and it's even got a built in grenade launcher for dealing with heavy armor without melting your rifle." This time he looked at Minea, who had the decency to blush. "Here, this is for you Lieutenant." Another box was picked up and handed to Minea. "I know that that old rifle belonged to your mother, so I fixed it for you." At hearing this, Minea hugged the big man.

"Calm down, lass. Don't break this old man now."

"Thank you Swann, this means a lot to me."

Sana picked up the discarded ammo list from where it had landed on the floor next to the spider mines. This was a major dejavu for her. Back when they had studied to beckome ghosts the exact same thing had happened when the instructor had presented Minea with her mothers C-10.

"Come on Minea, let's go get familiar with our new toys."


	5. Ghosts and Ghosts? 2

**A/N**

**WARNING This chapter contains descriptions of graphic violence against children! Do not read if you are sensitive. I've upped the rating because of this.**

I may need to rewrite this chapter but for now I'll just leave it like this until I know what to do with it...

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><p>The quiet of space made her think of the many quiet nights on Hethis II, her home world. There she had lived a simple and happy life among many friends and families. She was five when her first psionic power manifested itself.<p>

There had been a massive riot in the port town of Hummin. Recent pirate attacks on the shipping lanes had increased the prices on food and people started to get desperate. Her father had taken as much food with him to help the citizens. He never came back home after that.

Minea's mother had tried to calm the workers down but when the riots spread outside the port town they had turned on her.

Young Minea had been out playing in the fields the entire day and didn't know the fate of her family. At least not until the evening, when she returned home for dinner.

She found her mother sitting outside her house crying. When she asked why, her mother had only replied that all was lost. Minea hadn't understood what that meant just then, but when her home exploded in a inferno of fire a little later, she did. And her powers had shown themselves by shielding her mother from the fire.

The rioters who was at the farm had seen this and decided to sell her as a slave. Only the intervention from Minea's mother prevented this, for a few minutes that is. The riot leader stabbed her in the gut with a knife and them went for the harmless five year old child.

Minea had gotten so scared by the fire and the men, and when her mother screamed and collapsed in front of her holding her stomach, she froze.

Her memories after that were hazy but she could remember men who hurt her. Repeatedly. And hunger, that was probably her most powerful memory. Always hungry with little to nothing to eat.

She was somewhere underground in a city she didn't know, and they never let her up to see the sunlight. She was always quiet no matter what they did to her but that seamed to make them angrier.

One day another girl was thrown into the room with her. Her name was Elna. She had been one of Minea's friends.

The next day someone took her away, leaving Minea alone again. When Elna was thrown back into the cellar she was covered in scars and wounds. It took several hours for Elna to stop screaming, but when she did... The most painful memory of that time was not the men or the torture that she had suffered, no. What had been the worst was sitting in that dark room, listening to Elna's mind breaking. And then there was the thuds as the insane child had started bashing her head into the walls. It took her the better part of the night to beat her self to death. Minea had not been able to cover her ears and look away as her unlocked telepathy showed her what was going on inside Elna's mind the entire time.

Thud. Blood on the wall.

Someone touching her.

Thud, a slight crack as her skull fractured.

The pain as a man hurt her, and at the same time slowly bending her arm. Till it broke. The sound echoed in the room.

Thud. More blood and something else...

Fire. Someone was burning, the smell of burnt flesh. Pain

Thud...

After that, all became quiet. No painful memories, no ragged sobs, no bashing of a head against the wall.

The earliest memory Minea had after that was of someone hugging her. Three years later.

Apparently the government learned of the riot and sent troops to stop it and to stop the pirates that had caused it in the first place. In no more then four weeks time had peace returned to the region. During this time, the government found out about Minea's family and sent their ghosts to find her.

Her mother had belonged to their first ghost squad, and had acted as a sniper trainer after receiving a gunshot to her head, effectively destroying her psionic power. loosing the child of a ghost agent was simply not allowed.

Even so, it took a full year before one of the ghosts found her in the cellar belonging to a slave ring. When they brought her up from there, the full extent of her damages were brought to light. It was horrible.

The then six year old Child had shut down all higher thoughts and locked herself inside her mind. Not even the most powerful ghost among them could break her mental shield. In the end they simply left her at the central hospital and cut their losses.

Minea never responded to the nurses gentle care, no matter what they tried. She wasn't the only one at the hospital and the nurses soon focused no those who they could help. Although the were curious about why the local government paid for her bills, but as no one spoke with them and the child never changed, they soon forgot about her.

Three years later had not changed this and her room had become the room where they placed all catatonic patients. One day they placed the victim of a domestic disturbance in that room. The twelve year old child had been found sitting in the bloody remains of her family. Just sitting there, not screaming or crying just sitting there quietly.

The new child was called Sana. She obeyed any order she was given, no matter what that order was, but she did not take any actions her self. Left alone she would stay put till she starved to death. She spoke only if someone told her what to say but did not respond to questions, nor did she react to any stimuli of any kind. The security cameras had shown that her parents had started fighting and when her mother fad taken a knife and stabbed her husband, Sana had screamed. And screamed more as her psionic power made mer mother explode in a bloody cloud. The cameras had then shown how the child had simply sat down and waited till the police got there. Months later had shown no improvement and the hospital simply put her in the "quiet room"

The fact that they both were psychics did not matter as the government of the Mieu system didn't follow the strict protocol of the Confederacy, nor did they follow the orders of the Dominion later. Any one with psychic power could join the army's ghost program if they wanted to, and if they didn't then they could receive civilian training to help them in what ever job they chose. Most were not strong enough to become ghosts and were instead trained to be psychic commanders. Civilian jobs for psychics usually included pilots and construction work.

The hospital psychiatrist and PI 5 telepath Melissa had one day,out of pure boredom, ordered Sana to break through Minea's mind's barrier and help her come back to the world of the living. The child had obeyed and walked over to the other bed, pulling the child to her in a big hug, Sana had let lose her power.

Melissa had found herself thrown out of the room through the wall and down the corridor.

The "quiet room" was located in one of the corner rooms on the third floor of the hospital. When Sana's telekinetic power activated it blew out the walls of the room. For several hours after that the release of power never stopped and the five ghosts who were sent there to fix it found themselves faced with a vastly superior psychic. There was nothing they could do but wait.

By nightfall only one ghost stayed with Melissa. Then the power ceased without warning. Carefully, she approached the room. Sound of soft sobbing was heard from the usually quiet room, and when she looked in through the door she could see both girls hugging each other and crying gently. She motioned for the ghost to remain where he was so that his presence wouldn't cause any disturbance.

Sana turned to face the psychiatrist. "I'm done now. She's returned." Then she fainted and slipped off the bed. Minea stopped crying and slid down to Sana. Hugging her tightly she fell asleep right there.

In the months that followed both girls became famous as the press hounded them at all times. Pictures of the two girls in each others arms sold for insane prices and the paparazzi would try anything to get good pictures.

The psychiatrist realized that their phenomenal recovery was only half complete as they would revert back to their previous state of mind if separated for more then a few minutes. Melissa theorized that it was because of both girls psionic connection with each other.

In the end they were eventually cured, both girls working together to overcome their hurt. The ghost academy finally received what would become their most powerful students ever after another three years of therapy.

Minea was 12 and Sana was 15. Ten years later they made contact with the Protoss under the command of Preator Mojo and his Terran friends when...

"Minea, we are about to hit atmosphere. Prepare yourself." Sana's telepathic voice cut her trip down memory lane short. The kinetic foam inside the drop pod would shield her from the heat but could do very little against the pull of gravity. She hugged her arms closer to herself and waited. Soon the shocks and shaking of the drop pod dissipated as it passed into atmosphere.

"Counting! 58 seconds until contact."

The impact was hardly noticed as the drop pod and the foam absorbed almost all of the force. It still left her slightly tender, though tender was still preferred over dead.

Three seconds later and the sides were blasted open. The terrain of the planet was devoid of life as there was no air to breathe. The Cruiser started with ease and the two ghosts telepathically made up their plans.

Sana was to head to the main base of the DSR, the Dominion Science Regiment. There she was to recover any and all data gathered on the odd signature that the Hyperion had identified from orbit. Her primary objective was to recover the data and her second was to make sure that the Dominion didn't get it. A simple "Thief in the night" scenario with some divide and conquer for a closing act.

Minea was to approach the signal area and identify it's source. And if possible retrieve it for the Raiders, if not then destroy it so the Dominion couldn't get it. There was one more order thou, if the signal was of Protoss or Xel'naga origin then she would call the Hyperion for further orders.

Gunning the Cruisers to full speed they started for their separate objectives. The wide wheels made short work of the rough terrain, and the near silent engine was heard as no more then a whisper in the wind. Driving them was almost as much fun as riding a vulture, although without the slightly-higher-then-what-is-healthy-for-you dangerous part. But it was still fun.

Back in the Hyperion's armory, engineer Swann was busy watching a Firebat and a Marauder try to bash each others head in. Just looking at the two juggernauts fight like it was a bar fight in the cantina was fun, but there was something there that Swann could only get a glimpse of. Some thing useful.

He wasn't in a hurry. This is how he got his great ideas. As long as he allowed it to show itself to him he would not stop the fight. There was something there. Something that included both fighters. He eventually had to stop the fight before any one decided to use their weapons.

"All right you two, stop this. If you absolutely have to fight then do it properly in the ring."

Both turned to look at Rory Swann and then shrugged. The Firebat turned to leave. "Told ya, my armor could take your pathetic punches you sissy. My mother could hit harder 'n that."

This of course prompted the Marauder to chase after the "way-to-cocky-for-his-own-good" Firebat. "Ohhh, it's on."

Meanwhile Swann could only sigh at the armored giants trying to one-up each other. "If I could breed those two we'd have the perfect heavy infantry..." Suddenly he got a moment of clarity and saw before him the result of combining the two soldiers into one unit. The heavy armor breaking ability of the Marauder combined with the zergling frying ability of the Firebat, that would probably increase the survival time of both by a lot. Of to the drawing board then...

"hey, Sana. I've found the source of the signal. It looks like some kind of Xel'naga temple put on top of a Vespene geyser." Telepathically sending the view to Sana was easy and would give her a better understanding of what she meant.

I see... Looks like a refinery to me. Maybe the Xel'naga used this world as a resource. Anyway, I'm approaching the camp. Talk to you later."

"Be safe."

"Allays."

The silent running of the Cruiser allowed her to drive right up to the side of the camp without giving away her location to the Dominion troops stationed as guards. She exited the vehicle and engaged stealth. It was time to explore the camp.

One step. Just one was all she managed to take before the high pitched ping of a bullet hitting the armor of the Cruiser signaled the presence of a Dominion ghost. This mission just got a whole lot more exieting.

The echo of the gunshot sent the guards into a panic. Zerg they could handle, pirates and zealots too. But against invisible ghost they had no chance. So they did the only logical thing left. They started shooting. A lot, and at everything.

Sana was hiding behind a few crates inside the camp in a frail attempt to avoid giving the ghost a clear shot. Her cloak wouldn't help her against another ghost since it could track her psionic signal. Instead she focused on the marines.

"Alright you maggots, I want eight marines to guard the western entry, five to the east and i want..." Talking had made him a primary target for Sana and so a 25mm hollow-point round trashed his head and cut his orders off. The marines started shooting even faster, obviously high on stims.

The crate that Sana hid behind exploded when the ghost targeted it. The explotion made the marines turn around. She cloaked and sprinted over the road and jumped in behind the barracks. Behind her the ground exploded as the ghost tried to hit her. From the corner of her eye she saw the marines turn to shoot in the direction of the ghost.

Sana carefully peeked around the corner on the other side. There was a marine officer there who was trying to bring order to the chaos. That could not be allowed as Sana needed the marines to remain unorganized.

She calmly loaded a U-238 armor piercing shell into her C-20A and took aim. The armor on the marines back should theoretically protect him from harm, but was easily punctured and his front opened like a can of sardines. The 25mm shell then precoded to empty the contents of his torso out onto the ground in front of the rallied marines. The confusion that followed was just perfect when combined with the stim induced rage. They immediately started spraying spikes in her general direction.

Even without leaders the marines were smarter then she would have liked, but the fact that they could pinpoint the position of a cloaked attacker through the point of impact of the weapons was more than impressive, it was awesome. These were not the normal resocs so commonly used but instead was probably part of a special squad. That would explain the presence of a Dominion ghost. If only the ghost would shoot at her enough to attract their attention then maybe she could create a trap.

The moment she poked her head out of her hiding place the ghost fired on her repeatedly, apparently abandoning careful aim in exchange for numbers. The marines instantly turned and started spraying spikes in it's direction.

Sensing that the ghost had hidden from the sudden friendly fire, Sana used this respite from it's searching gaze to sprint over to the cluster of supply depots on the southern end of the base. Now the ghost would have to come to her if he wanted to take her out.

She reached into the small backpack she carried and withdrew a EMP grenade she stole from a science vessel once. She made a quick plan for how to best use her surroundings to their most effective use. The depots had a "hide" system, thats how she would do it. Sensing that the ghost was closing in on her she had to act fast.

On one of the walls she found the control panel. Hacking it was easy, it was making all of them obey at the same time that took time. She forced herself to forget about the big flaw in her plan. The one where her own suit would fry just as much as the ghost's would.

A spike in the psionic field let her know that the ghost was getting far too close for comfort made her fingers dance even faster on the command board.

There, done. now all that remained was for the go button to be pushed. She contemplated how smart her plan was for only a few seconds before hitting it. Then she pushed the arming button on the grenade and threw it into the sky. Sana then threw herself to the ground and tried her best to look as uninteresting as possible.

The stimed-up marines where drawn to the lowering depots and lined up in front of them. Armed and ready. What followed was a domino effect of preordained events.

First the lowering of the supply depots, exposed the still cloaked ghost to the open air, followed by the ghost spotting it's target.

Second was the explosion of the EMP grenade which decloaked said ghost and revealed it to the searching gazes of the marines.

Third was the firing of the earlier mentioned fifty marine's C-14 Gauss Rifles.

The ghost would have been surprised at the sudden events that just unfolded if the first spike hadn't removed his head. The following 49 rounds proceeded to turn his once solid shape into noyhing more then a red mist. The automatic fire continued to spray the area with lethal projectiles for several second before they stoppped.

Sana stayed very still as the marines came closer to inspect their handi work. Slowly she counted down the second that remained until her suit restarted itself. One of the marines walked right over her, his eyes focused on the bloody remains. His metal feet was so close to stepping right on her that she had to reevaluate the brightness of the plan.

The moment her suit regained it's stealth function she cloaked and ran to the now unguarded science facility.

On the other side of the canyon Minea was having less luck. Things might have gone better if she had been more observant of her surroundings, but instead she was at the point of her dilemma. On one hand she could stay still and hope that they shoot her in the head, on the other hand she could try to fight and risk not getting shot anywhere lethal.

Her eyes widened suddenly when she got a swift glance of the future.

She saw herself duck under the lethal pieces of hot metal flying through the air. On her way down she kicked out with her right leg and sent the middle ghost tumbling into the left one. At the same time she drew her C-7 sidearm and rolled to the right. Half way through the roll her aim leveled with the only standing ghost. The bullet passed through her head and ended her life in the blink of an eye.

Finishing the roll left her facing the ground, but with one hand she pushed herself upp and spun around again. Lashing out with her leg again mid spin ended his life as her foot connected with his head and broke his neck.

The last ghost got up from the ground. The first kick had probably broken her leg but when Minea finished her mid-air spin by stomping her foot down hard on the leg at an angle removed all doubts. The ghost screamed as her allready hurt leg was hurt even more. Minea placed the gun in her mouth...

Suddenly she realized that her vission was over and she could only smile. Precognition was a great power to have the few times it activated. This was the eight time ever that it had done so. The only thing left to do was follow through.

She ducked, they fired, she kicked. The rest of the fight was nothing more then going from point to point. From the perspective of a viewer it looked like a well rehearsed dance between the four combatants.

So lost in her own mind was she that she failed to realize it was over until she heard the other ghost whimper in pain. Standing on her knees and with the gun in her mouth left her completely at the mercy of the other.

Minea looked down and observed the result of her handiwork. The ghost standing on her knees was nothing more then a PI 5. And only being telepathic didn't help against a stronger ghost. When Minea removed her gun she felt relieved but soon began to fear what her fate would be.

"Tell me what you know about this place." Minea asked in a pleasant tone.

The ghost felt that something was wrong but was unable to pinpoint the source. Minea was telepathically breaking through her mind barriers.

"I don't know anything, all they've told us is that this place does something more than just harvest Vespene. We were sent out here to make sure that nothing interfered with the scientists work." For just the briefest of moments her eyes searched for her rifle, but in her mind she virtually screamed "Where is it?" Minea raised her gun.

"Close your eyes." She sensed that the ghosts mind came to a still. All the confused thoughts ended and only silence remained. After scanning the ghosts mind Minea had come to the conclusion that no one had informed her of anything more than she had already said.

The moment the ghost's eyes closed she pulled the trigger.

"Minea, I'm done here. Got all the guards with the auto turrets and managed to stop the call for help. How are things on your side?" Sana's telepathic voice cut through the silence with clarity.

Minea looked around at the scene. Dead SCV pilots and scientists littered the ground. Dead guards scattered here and there, and in front of her the dead ghost. Her clean face was looking up at the sky, hiding the big hole at the back of her head. "I'm done here to, call the Hyperion."


	6. Addendum Flex 1

A/N

I've edited this chapter now

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><p>Pt 3. Addendum Flex<p>

The ground rushed by as the cruiser did it's best to run as fast as possible. The Vulture bikes that were giving chase did their best to catch her but without the thruster upgrade the Cruiser was faster. One of the Vultures vanished from her radar, and then a second and a third. The Predators had sprung their trap and was removing the targets swiftly.

Minea turned her Cruiser around and started for the convoy once again. The eight Predators by her side, keeping pace with the Cruiser. The rough terrain made her progress slower then she wanted but it was still fast enough to catch up to them.

The convoy was a pirate raiding party that had crashed a party in the nearby town of Logden, a mining town known for...well nothing really. The pirates however didn't know this so when they attacked they found next to nothing of value. They stole what they could though, some credits and minerals and two young girls.

This pirate raid would have been nothing special if it weren't for the fact that Raynor's Raiders used Logden for moving supplies under the radar of the Dominion, so when the Hyperion and the Jackson's Revenge jumped into the system the pirates lost their hope of escaping. It was one thing to be brave and another to be suicidal, and challenging two capital-class Battlecruisers was the later, so they tried to hide out in the wastes, but as nothing beyond the town existed on the surface it was doomed to fail. That's why they found them selves hunted by a Ghost and a pack of Predators.

"Shit, shit, shit, it's still coming. Someone, shoot it." the driver of the truck screamed as one of the Predators tackled it in an attempt to stop it. The truck shook violently but remained upright, defying the persistent assault from the Predators.

A pirate leaned out of the window and tried to aim at the pursuing Ghost but never got a shot of as the nearest Predator grabbed his head in it's powerful jaws and ripped it off. His dead body fell to the floor and his blood coated the inside of the windscreen, making it impossible to see anything. The truck hit a big rock and stopped.

Minea however didn't stop, there was no need to as three Predators stayed behind. The telepathic link would let her see everything anyway. The last truck was doing it's best to escape but compared to the Cruiser it was moving at snail pace. Two Predators ran up to the sides and activated their electrical fields causing the Vespene to detonate and kill the driver as well as stop the truck.

Minea calmly stepped out and approached the back of the truck. The sounds of screaming and gunfire could be heard but the armored Predators were at little risk from small arms fire. As she stepped around the corner there was only one survivor left. The female pirate was holding on to the remains of her right arm and tried to crawl away but was stopped when a big metal paw slammed down on her back hard enough to crack a few ribs. She screamed in both pain and terror.

As Minea approached she got a good look at what had been in the other truck thanks to the telepathic link to the Predators. Some weapons and a handful of grenades as well as the mostly clothed children they had taken away. They seemed unharmed and smelled of sweat and tears but no blood and no semen so they were unspoiled as well.

"Please, just let me go..." The pirate pleaded

"Why should I? What you would have done to those girls would have deserved death. Or are you going to tell me that you would do something non harmful to them?" Minea did not like the idea of hurting children, and these pirates had probably sold them as soon as possible. THAT fate would have been horrible.

The pirate was starting to lose consciousness thanks to the blood loss and eventually collapsed to the side. One of the predators closed it's jaws around her head and proceeded with it's removal from the rest of her body.

As Minea watched the rather gruesome view she quietly wondered if she should find the scene disturbing or not. Perhaps to much bloodshed had numbed her to the horrors of war.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the second group of predators. The girls looked as if they feared them as much as the pirates. She honesty couldn't blame them after all, the Predators, while looking like metallic felines, were built for war.

Tapping her comm a few times to cycle through the channels she eventually got in touch with the local Marshall.

"Johann, you can pick up the girls two click east of town as well as a small cache of hardware. bring a shovel for the pirates."

"Got it, psi-babe, and thanks for acting so quick." His response was fired of in a hurry, probably because he was already on his way. It didn't stop her from groaning at his nickname for her. She knew that it was nothing more then his way of handling his fear of ghosts but it was still insulting.

A few more taps on the comm brought up Major Shaw in the Raiders camp to the west.

"Major, Specialist Minea here, my missions completed. I need you to prepare a shuttle back to the Hyperion in twenty min."

"This is Major Shaw, I have received specific orders that you are to join the Jackson's Revenge for a preemptive strike on a Dominion position. The commander will brief you there, over."

"Orders received Major. I'm on my way now, ETA 17min and counting." Minea revved the cruiser and shifted up. further increasing her speed. By now she had been joined by the other Predators and together they raced towards the hidden base that was basically nothing more than a refueling and rearming station for the raiders.

Running the Cruiser at top speed through the many narrow and mean curves of the canyons that littered the landscape outside the settlement gave her a thrill that nothing else seemed to be able to match. All eight of her Predators followed behind, using their massive claws on their feet to sometimes even scale the walls of some curves. The same feeling of excitement at pushing themselves to their limits flowed back and forth between them all.

By the time Minea got to the base she was laughing hysterically.

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><p>On the massive pirate warship the 'Jackson's Revenge', an old man wearing and equally old Confederate Admiral uniform paced his surprisingly spartan captains quarters. On a vessel like the Revenge luxury was wasted. And it would probably only serve to make him soft, and THAT would be a quick way to end his career, and probably his life too.<p>

He walked over to the holo-table and checked the mission statement again. In theory it was so simple that it just couldn't fail. So that probably they were going to anyway, just because. He was sure there was a name for that, but right now he couldn't remember it.

The plan was to jump in behind the system's star during it's regular sun storms to remain hidden from scans, and then launch the three stealth insertion ships in the cargo bay. Those would contain a small group of trusted marines as well as a ghost and her ...well, pack of predators. In theory they would then do the dangerous part of actually assaulting the dominion stronghold. So why did it feel as if HE was at a greater risk?

Finally he decided to follow his instincts and avoid the star and jump in on the dark side of one of the planets. This method was likely to take longer, and thus increase the risk of detection, but his gut told him it was the right choice. Returning to the map he made the required changes and then forwarded them to the navigation officer.

"Captain, the specialist has docked together with the group of Predators. they are awaiting orders in docking bay 11." The voice of his First Mate came over his private comm line. He walked over to it and activated the line from his side. "Thank you Thomas, I'll go there now. Call the strike team leaders and tell them to meet us there, OK?" A few seconds of silence passed before the reply came. "they'll be there, captain."

With that the old captain pulled on his coat and put his pipe in his mouth. A good first impression could do wonders for the continued cooperation with the Raiders, not to mention that Raynor paid well for their services, AND he allowed some plundering from military targets as long as the civilian population remained unharmed. Sure, not all of his crew thought that only being allowed to plunder the military would be profitable. The truth was that the military gear they took could either replace their own or be sold at a price that, because of both the Protoss and the Zerg, was high enough to almost make working for Raynor the most profitably contract in their history so far.

The trip to the docking bay from his quarters had drastically changed after joining the Raiders. To start, the engineers in the raiders had been working in shifts repairing and upgrading all parts of the ship. Now, all mechanical aspects worked like new, even the chrome was mirror polished, and all corridors and rooms had a pristine feel to them. This and the profits they made had solidly confirmed the loyalty of his crew.

Every now and then he passed by a small alcove with small trinkets in them. These were gifts from the people that had received direct aid from the 'Jackson's Revenge'. The gifts ranged from statues and paintings( some of them were even considered treasures of humanity and thus priceless) to toys and jewelry. They all had one thing in common, all were given to them as gifts, and all crew felt proud of these gifts. They had risked much for them and at least a part of them felt that these gifts represented their success.

Finally the Captain reached the docking bay and entered the massive hall to greet the specialist. The first thing that he noticed was the general lack of crew in the hangar. They were normally a curious bunch and would love to have a look at one of the few ghost under Raynor's control. And this particular ghost had a reputation as a real beauty. Approaching the shuttle soon revealed why the crew stayed away. 8 big predators roamed the area, keeping nosy individuals away. One approached him and from the corner of his eyes he could see the few crew still in the hangar look at him. Smiling, he decided to enforce his position as captain by showing no fear of the rather sleek looking killing machines. Petting the massive metallic head he approached the ghost.

* * *

><p>Minea had been waiting for a handful of minutes by now. The first thing she did after stepping out from the shuttle was to order her pack to chase away all the nosy onlookers that was only staring at her in general and her rather revealing ghost suit in particular. She was normally a calm and collected girl, but a hundred men and a few women all staring was to much even for her. Now she could feel the presence of the captain approaching.<p>

"Specialist Mnemosyne, have you been briefed on your assignment yet?"

"No, Captain, not yet."

"Good, follow me and keep your pets under control. I'll brief you in one of the lounges. Do you want something first?"

Minea looked at her pack and sent all but one to the armory. Ever since bonding with them she had avoided being alone. She felt safe with them nearby. "One Predator should not cause any disturbance among your crew, the rest will remain in the armory." Her eyes followed the others out of the hangar, her minds eye seeing what they see. The crew carefully stepping out of the way as they stalked along the corridors, no one wanting to get in their way.

Minea had been on the 'Revenge' a few times before and had come to admire the dreadnought class Battleship. It was big, fast and powerful. Something that she admired when it came down to preferences. The Hyperion was very nice and...posh(being Mengsk's Flagship and all), but the raw unabashed power usually present on front-line warships just wasn't there. 'Jackson's Revenge' swam in a sea of exuded power, and just looking at it should normally inspire fear or similar feelings.

In one of the recently cleaned and restored lounges stood a big holo-table. One big window provided a nice view of space(after it's shutters had been repaired and opened) and a sound system played softly in the background. There were many groups of tables and chairs spread out in the room. It had been used as a crude storeroom during their buccaneering time and as a result, most of the tech had fallen into disrepair, in fact most of the crew didn't even know that there were any windows at all.

Five people stood around the big table, looking at a tactical readout of a big research installation named Valhalla, orbiting a planet with the same name. This was the main objective of their current mission, a joint strike with Raynor.

"Raynor has decided to strike against this place in order to get some new super weapon that the Dominion has recently built. In order to get it and leave without detection only a small crew will handle the main attack and steal it before the main defense force can mount any sort of counter attack. This would not normally require our presence if it weren't for a little piece of information that we recently bought." The captain looked around to make sure that they all understood what he said. His First Mate had been the one to acquire the data, so he knew but as for the rest, the ghost and the two team leaders they didn't. He took some time pouring himself a glass of water to allow them to comprehend this.

The two marines were rather easy to read, one looked calm and thoughtful, the other highly interested and serious. Not surprising considering that Raynor only used competent personnel as team leaders. The ghost on the other hand was utterly unreadable. First, she was a ghost, second she had put on a Recon Hood that covered her face. this was eventually done in order to make his crew stop staring at her, sure, she was a looker but there was something extra when said looker could probably kill you without moving that added some spice to it.

"This data mentions an equally dangerous weapon being built there under the codename 'Loki'. This experimental star ship must not be allowed to remain in Dominion hold. Therefore we will preform two simultaneous strikes against it during Raynor's main strike against the 'Odin' super weapon." He took a sip of the water and continued. "Master Sargent Claude, you and your crew will steal the ship and pilot it to the 'Jackson's Revenge', and you will do this during the complete blackout when Raynor makes him move. Lt. Commander Hearth, you and your crew will strike the research team and steal all data on the 'Loki' as well as any and all other vital data you can. don't leave anything behind, destroy all data banks once you are done. Actually, don't leave any survivors that might tell Mengsk anything useful."

"Captain, may I have a copy of this data so I can brief my crew on our mission?" The Master Sargent was carefully looking over the maps on where the ship was docked.

"Of course, Master Sargent. In fact you all will have a copy to look at." He then turned to Minea. "You will aid Lt. Commander Hearth because that is where you will be of most use. Stop anyone from sending out a warning before Raynor's crew can do it's thing, and also find anything that they might have hidden in case of an attack, like the one we are about to launch. I want you all to understand the importance of radio silence. Under no circumstance may the Dominion know of our presence until the 'Odin' is secured. In fact, if you all can do this without raising the alarms then I'll buy a round at the bar for you."

Lt. Commander Hearth pointed at several comm towers and then looked at Minea. "Do you think that you could take care of those first? They'll be a pain to neutralize for us so I think the quiet method will be for the best. It looks like these five right here will do but I'll leave the decision of how to you, Lieutenant."

In her own room, Minea had finished a thorough read of all the data they had on the 'Loki' and Valhalla itself. The ship seemed like a more modern version of the 'Jackson's Revenge' loaded with some heavier weapons. The base on the other hand was the standard Rn D station utilized by the dominion. The comm tower had to go first, Hearth was right about that, but the second base's main security system would detect them before Raynor's raid, and no matter how thorough she checked the maps the control room just wasn't there. That would be a major problem for her. Even though she could use her stealth to sneak around and look for it, the mission was on a preset timer and had to be executed in record time.

All her planing would be undone if she couldn't shut it down before the others started their strike. There was only one option left to her now, and she'd rather not risk it but something had to change. The predators would all be equipped with enough EMP generators to knock out a small city. If all eight roam the base at the same time then she would be able to determine where the blasted building was fast enough to neutralize it in time, but then again, none of her Predators had stealth and the risk of getting spotted would rise tremendously.

She just didn't want to risk any extra danger to her friends, but the mission had a higher priority then personal connections to war assets. Minea had to start making the necessary changes to the Predators soon or it would be to late.

At the Armory, several rows of weapons and gear were placed in organized columns. Tanks, Vikings and several Goliaths lined the open floor. One corner was empty save for the seven Predators sleeping in close proximity to one another, or at least that was what the armory crew had unanimously agreed to call it. Several things about them was downright frightening. Highest on that list was probably the fact that they were essentially nothing more then armored Zerg. The second place was held by the fact that they were the personal guards of the gorgeous ghost agent, and though ghosts were one of the most dangerous soldiers in Raynor's arsenal, anything bad ass enough to be THEIR personal guards should be treated with extreme care.

As Anthony Luca had discovered, they did not enjoy the presence of the engineers. This discovery came at the expense of his clothes and his pride when they made their point well known to everyone watching. They wanted to be left alone! And everyone should just stay away. That was why one area of the floor was empty.

Minea eventually came down and brought several high powered EMP generators with her. One by one she removed the Vanadium plating, exposing the delicate interior. Several technicians gathered around, most of them had never seen the Predators before she brought them on board earlier. The delicate work was completed with an experienced hand. The EPM's would fit snuggly inside them and because of their biological properties the Predators would be unaffected, leaving the automatic security(cameras, drones, turrets) to mysteriously burn out.

Minea hoped that this would be enough to avoid detection, at least long enough to complete her goal.

* * *

><p>AN

Ghosts will always carry two ranks; Specialist(Ghost rank) and their military rank (usually Lieutenant up to Commander) and only HIGHCOM will refer them by the Specialist rank while all other personnel will use their military rank.

HIGHCOM is the commander of the current Battleship to which the Raiders are currently assigned. These are The Hyperion, The Jackson's Revenge, The Super Carrier Dhal'Jo(Mojo's Carrier), and The Iron Fist of the Alliance. All but the Protoss report directly to Raynor.


	7. Addendum Flex 2

"Three hours until we jump. Complete all final preparations and report to your stations because it's about time we made the Dominion look like fools again!"

The roar of laughter and whistles even made it to Minea's room. Apparently, the captain's small speech to the crew had just the right amount of previous victories mixed with confidence to inspire them. This was actually an important part of the captains job because a poorly motivated crew was likely to fail miserably, or commit mutiny, and neither of these were the desired outcome.

She had her tech visor plugged in to the computer and was busy updating the maps for the mission on Valhalla. The Umojans who had sold the Raiders the data on the 'Loki' had been nice enough to provide her with the building plans for virtually all buildings on the base. Her job required her to be prepared for any encounter in all the suspect buildings, and there were a lot of those.

Displayed on the screen was several floor plans of the buildings she would have to examine. The extra data cables leading in to them was basically the only clue they had to identify the security center, and that was not enough. She really hated when the scenario played out in the favor of their enemies, but that was why the ghosts handled the otherwise suicidal missions, and survived most of them.

Minea had come to enjoy the shared mental link with the Predators. They were adding their own intelligence to hers and making things like problem solving so simple that she almost instinctively relied on their input for everyday things. Objectively looking at the several buildings that were spread out on the screen, she allowed the link to them to fully open up. Instantly their different thought patterns flooded her mind, then everything calmed down. She took several deep breaths to fully adjust and soon all thoughts became as one. The Protoss called it Khala, Minea had no name for the shared mind of the Predators, but then again, she didn't need one. When connected, there were no boundaries between them, all she was and all they were, joined into a single greater consciousness.

The planning process was swiftly completed as the now nine joined minds made short work of the many possible routes to reach all targets. For now, all that was left was to repeatedly scrutinize every inch of the maps and retrace every rout possible. Her friends were at risk, and everything she could do to minimize that risk had to be considered.

Therefore, Minea spent the next three hours sitting in her room quietly talking to herself while flipping through the maps.

* * *

><p>On the bridge of the 'Jackson's Revenge', the captain was quietly looking at the scanner sweeps of the system. They were here earlier then expected and had hidden themselves on the dark side of a planet. First priority was to check for any potential ambush, and they had found one almost instantly. Hidden in the sun storms was a small fleet of dominion battleships apparently waiting for them. He thanked his lucky star that he had changed the exit point away from the star. Now all they had to do, to help the strike teams, was to jam the fleet and keep them away from Valhalla.<p>

Once the Hyperion jumped in to the system, the pressure on him to suppress the hidden fleet would triple. Add to that the fact that everything had to be completed without any contact with each other in order to remain hidden from the Dominions watchful eyes. They just had to trust that the other part would preform their tasks.

"All hands to battle stations, we're about to launch our primary strike on Valhalla. This is the only chance we'll ever get at stealing not just one but two of the Dominion's latest super weapons. Raynor will handle the 'Odin' and we'll steal the 'Loki'. This means that we get the first look at it. Keep up the excellent work and we might not even have to engage that fleet out there." After finishing his mission speech to the crew, the captain turned his attention to the team leaders who had gathered around the star chart on the bridge.

"I trust that you have completed your preparations for this endeavor?" He eyed them for any hint otherwise before he continued. "Lieutenant, your mission starts now, neutralize their security and pave the way for the rest of the teams." The captain then walked over to one of the boxes at the back. He picked up a small data disc which he then handed to Minea. "This virus will disrupt their communications, in theory any way, and should give you the time you need to clear it out for us."

The captain then turned his attention to the Lt. Commander and Master Sergeant. "You two will strike the moment Lieutenant Minea has cleared the ground for us. Don't worry about the other team, just complete your own mission first. Once you're done, meet up on the 'Loki' and run like hell back to us. If something exceptionally bad happens, like, the Dominion fleet finds us, then I'll need all help I can get in dealing with them."

As one they all left the bridge and gathered their teams for engagement. Minea's Predators were already inside one of the special ops dropships used by the Raiders. She strapped herself to one of the empty seats and waited. The mission had just started and the timer was slowly ticking down to Raynor's strike on the 'Odin'. Now she could feel the pressure of her job, as all the other teams relied on her for safety.

* * *

><p>Minea was running through the narrow passages that littered the backside of the buildings on Valhalla, several intersections lead away from her current path, not that they would be able to distract her in any way because she knew them like the back of her hand, having memorized nearly all the maps. Now would be a great time to test the reliability of the extra EMP disrupter every Predator had been installed with. They seemed to function as intended when the auto-turrets remained in their semi-hidden wall safes.<p>

The buildings in front of her seemed to fade out as her vision shifted to that of the first Predator to reach one of the target buildings. Now directly under her control, the feline warmachine simply felt like a part of her body. Scaling the side with her massive titanium claws allowed her to reach the open window on the fifth floor. She could feel the power in the limbs as they effortlessly carried her heavy metallic body up the side of the building.

Inside there were no more then a handful of armed guards and a few scientists that unfortunately would not survive. This was, after all, a stealth mission and wittinesses could not be tolerated. Somehow, Minea could swear that she could taste their blood on her lips as she ripped them apart. Unfortunately, this was not the building she was looking for, though if would have been nice to find it on the first try. Relinquishing the direct control of the Predator was just unpleasant enough to make her notice it, but not enough to make her feel like it was wrong. Still, this was the first time that she actually noticed it and that would require a thorough examination later, once the mission was completed.

In front of Minea was another suspicious building that would require a check, something that was very easy for the ghost using her cloak. Moving quietly through the building, avoiding the few guards, Minea scanned the minds of the scientists for any hints on where the security station might be. Their minds were however only filled with the expected equations and quasi-philosophical techno-drabble one would expect from people not involved in some sort of ambush or double cross.

Minea wasn't going to let the first couple of failures bother her because the sheer amount buildings still to search was massive. Once more she let the link carry her consciousness into one of the Predators. The simplicity of it made her queasy, had the boarders between her mind and their been erased? but the fact that she couldn't tell her own body from the Predators anymore, was downright scary. Was the union with them a good thing or would it turn out to be a trap? Would the Zerg genes eventually overpower all their safeties and go rouge?

She carefully looked around the corner of a building across the street of the target. was there a reason for this particular area to have increased security? No need to be overly cautious now, but the timer WAS counting down and she really needed to find the right building soon. Stealthily slipping from shadow to shadow, her Predator body slowly advanced to the one side with a safe entry spot, a balcony on the second floor. Taking a running start, Minea's body easily made the jump and even managed to kill the unfortunate engineer who opened it. The room inside looked like some sort of office, complete with computer on the desk and a file cabinet by the door.

She slowly pushed open the door and looked up and down the corridor. There was a hum of electronics coming from the room at the end. This might be the one she was looking for. The door however, proved to be locked. Normally, something like that would only require her to psionically unbolt the door using her powers, but this wasn't her body, and the Predator didn't have enough power to utilize her skills. She would have to find another way in without giving herself away.

A sound to her right made her quickly step back into the office and hide. Several guards on patrol marched by without stopping. The smell of the cologne on the dead engineer by the balcony drew her attention, and examining him closer revealed that his ID-tag had the security clearance needed to unlock the door. She simply took it in her mouth and then almost nonchalantly trotted down the corridor to the room.

The door unlocked when she got near it and once inside revealed itself to be a massive server room. Using the Predator body's remote access, she hacked into one of the controls to identify what they contained. Several files and folders contained nothing of importance, at least not to her, but they had been asked to copy as much data as possible. Once this was done, she unleashed her discharge and fried the entire room, then she also engaged the EMP unit just to be sure. The result was astounding as every piece of computerized hardware in the room exploded in a spectacular display of malfunctioning machines. The shower of sparks lit the now inky-black room and cast everything into shadow, not that she needed any extra light to see.

Escaping from there however was impeded by the fact that just outside the room stood a few of the guards. They all opened fire immediately, and this time with the military C-14 Impalers. Unlike the last time anyone fired a weapon at them, the effect was drastically different and immediately the metal spikes managed to damage the plating, and tear into the sensitive flesh underneath.

Minea collapsed and hugged herself as the mental link was terminated. She could still feel it's presence but the pain was gone, leaving only the memory. Somehow, the Predator had cut her of and sent her consciousness back to her own body. Had they always possessed that skill?

Once she got over the feeling of being penetrated by the metal spikes, her minds eye observed the Predator limping out from the building and move somewhere safe. The regenerative bio-armor would repair the outer shell, but the damage on the inside would not be so simple to heal. At least it killed the marines before escaping, thus keeping their presence a secret a little longer.

Now that she was back in her own body, Minea realized that she had no idea where she was, nor how she got there. Had the Predators taken control of her body, as she had theirs? If it wasn't for the trust she had for them, Minea would kill them for having done anything to her without her consent. Never again would anyone be allowed to command her body against her will.

She examined the building she was in and the telltale signs of computers and marines said that either this was an important building, or the security station she was looking for. Even now, as she concentrated on her task at hand, could she still feel the wounded Predator in the back of her mind, but she was stopped from anything more then that. The others were blocking her from experiencing the pain, shielding her from danger.

Outside the room she was in were several large boxes neatly stacked to fit as many as possible in the small space. At one end there was a door leading into the main complex, and the security detail outside said that no one unfriendly would get by. At least in theory anyway, as Minea cloaked and then just walked by unchallenged. She knew that Mengsk wasn't so sloppy and the lack of any 'anti-ghost' countermeasures screamed trap. So when she found herself facing three Dominion ghosts at gunpoint, she wasn't as surprised as they might have hoped.

The three Predators that threw themselves at their faces completely ruptured their planned ambush, and the fight was ended before even one of them managed to get of a single shot. They didn't even have time to scream before their time was up.

Behind them was the main control room, soon to be depopulated by the Predators. By now, all but the injured one had joined her, and together they entered. Several marines fought back bravely but just didn't have the weapons and the manpower to handle them. At last, Minea had found the main security controls and uploaded the virus just in time for the 'Hyperion' to launch it's attack. She made the call to the 'Jackson's Revenge', telling them to begin the second phase. All that was left was to make sure the control room was rendered useless. The combined EMP bursts destroyed all the computers in the building, rendering it useless until they were replaced by new ones.


	8. Addendum Flex 3

With the security neutralized and the data secured it was now time to start the raid on the comm towers. Raynor and his crew should have started the primary strike on the 'Odin'. The towers closest had to go first, it just wouldn't do to have Raynor walk in to a trap in the last base. The problem with something so simple was that no one could know that the towers had been sabotaged in any way. The fact that they were located right inside the bases in the path of the 'Odin' didn't help at all. In fact, Minea would prefer if the crazy SOB piloting it would stop aiming at her. The explosion that knocked her flat on her back added insult to injury since it shortened out her stealth cloak, rendering her visible to the upset Dominion marines currently trying to fight the gargantuan war machine, the Odin siege walker. Suddenly finding a much easier target they all turned their attention to the ghost, forgetting the massive machine behind them. The pilot of the 'Odin' capitalized on the defenders mistake and fired it's massively over sized T-800 cannons, turning the defenders to mush and sending the ghost flying into one of the nearby buildings.

As Minea picked herself up from the floor she made a silent promise to kill the pilot later, once he was done trying to kill her that is. Any way, the third tower was neutralized and the last two weren't going to destroy themselves. The surprisingly large metal shard pinning her arm to the wall did make a quick exit rather difficult. The 'Odin' pilot had noticed this slight problem and decided that he wanted to know if it could stomp on the building. Minea lashed out with her strongest psychic attack but the distance and the electrical interference made it more or less useless. At the most she managed to make him stop and look for the nearest bathroom.

Finally yanking the annoying metal piece from her arm she got a rather vivid image of the pilot visiting the built in toilet. It was almost enough to make her forget to stop the bleeding. As she didn't carry any medical supplies (this was a quick stealth strike, after all) another solution was needed. Taking out her knife, Minea concentrated hard on the metal blade and eventually made it heat up so much that it glowed white-hot. Applying it to the bleeding wound did cauterize it, but it hurt a lot more then she expected. Now on to the next tower.

Moving with a few broken ribs and a currently useless right arm did slow her down some, but doing it without her cloak had made her progress nearly snail like. Sure, the next tower was just ahead but so was the 'Odin' and it's trigger happy pilot. Peeking 'round a corner, Minea could see several guards who took their jobs way to seriously. They were even patrolling the streets nearby as if something could strike at any time. Of course, that was just what was going to happen but still...

Minea carefully manipulated the mind of the closest marine, making him wander away into the alley. The overzealous sergeant in charge did notice the missing marine and just like Minea hoped, sent a large portion of guards away from the tower, giving her easy access. Walking up to it like she owned it, she removed the data chip and then walked away, leaving no evidence to her presence. They would be otherwise occupied when the 'Odin' showed up to the party, AND Minea didn't want to be here then. She had enough of being used as a target practice to last her a lifetime.

The walk to the last tower was almost devoid of guards. There were a few stray ones here and there but nothing serious. Then a group of Hellions passed her hiding spot and she suddenly knew why the street was empty, several Hellions patrolled the last stretch to the tower, and the crazy drivers rode them like they owned the road. The problem was that the last stretch to the tower had no hiding spots at all, normally not a problem for a ghost but her suit was ruined and she was severely hurt.

The solution was so simple that Minea had to laugh when she dominated the mind of the last Hellion driver and asked him nicely for a ride. The ride was completed swiftly and without incident. Once there, Minea neutralized the tower and then asked the nice, dominated pilot for a ride back home. Which happened to be the 'Loki'. When the driver opened the hatch and let her out, Minea rewarded him for the ride with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to scope him out the next time they met. The very happy driver then left, hoping that his CO hadn't noticed him going AWOL for a date with a girl hot enough to fry a steak on.

* * *

><p>Master Sargent Claude had finished the preliminary flight checks and navigation systems. Half of them were only half-way completed and more or less completely useless. If it weren't for the Lt. Commander's stolen data, there would be no way for him to get it space worthy. Not without rewriting it from scratch anyway, and they just didn't have the time for something that ambitious.<p>

Now that the important part of his mission was completed, and the 'Loki's' engines powered up and ready to go, he felt like it was safe to go and have a look at the ghost whose job had been to keep the Dominion from learning of the raid. She was currently placed in a Regen-tank, recovering from the wounds that, all things considered, should have killed her. That they were incurred from friendly fire did not help any.

"How is she?" He asked the medic in charge, a woman named Jennifer Doe.

The medic turned to face the man and shook her head. "The girl should have died of her wounds, sir. I did the most important parts like fixing her collapsed chest but the rest will just have to heal on it's own. How she managed to get here on her own is beyond me though."

"She's a Ghost Jen, what did you expect?" he honestly hoped that she wouldn't die as ghost were few and very far apart. Finding one who didn't think the Dominion was god's gift to Mengsk just didn't happen. especially after he got all paranoid and stuff. Now all of them undergoes memory wipes on a regular schedule and are implanted with neural implants, making it even harder to recruit any of them. Losing her would be a severe blow to Raynor's fighting force.

"Well, I did expect her to behave like a human at least. The amount of pain she must have been experiencing would have paralyzed a weaker person. Are all Ghosts this well trained?" She studied the many screens showing how the patient was doing and adding or removing various substances required for the most effective healing. Terran healing techniques had not yet reached the level where an AI could handle them.

Well, to tell the truth, he had no idea as to what her training had entailed but he assumed that it was the same as all ghosts. "I think so, but then again all of Raynor's forces are better equipped then Mengsk so why wouldn't our ghosts be better trained."

The medic just shook her head in amazement and wandered of to tend to the other wounded.

He turned around to check on the Predators who seemed to have found the few marines in his group who had a higher education in technology. They were busy removing their armor and placing the one seriously wounded in one of the unoccupied tanks. "What are you guys doing?"

The marine closest saluted and then returned to his task. "We are removing the active EMP units from inside these Predators sir, can't have them shorting out something important, like the life support or something similarly unpleasant." The marine managed to unplug the EMP and shut it down. Then he started to replace the cables and connectors to their right place in the Predator.

"Why do you even know what to do?" Claude knew that some of those in their group could be considered skilled but to dismantle one of the Predators (who were half zerg/half machine) was far outside their league.

"I...I don't know sir. It's like theres this voice in my head telling me what to do." He scratched his head and picked up a few cables from a box. using those he then began rerouting power from damaged areas to unharmed ones.

Claude turned his head to look at the ghost in the tank. In his mind he could hear a voice quietly whisper to him. It said that everything would be fine and that he could have his marines back once the predators were taken care of.

"Claude, you really need to get back to the bridge right now. The 'Jackson's Revenge' isn't looking to well, sir." The PA nearly made him jump. Darn it, just being in the presence of a ghost was starting to scare him.

"I'm on my way now Jacob." he said into his comm. unit. Turning to the medic he said with a smile he only reserved for the ladies: "We'll talk later, Jen. Just make sure she doesn't die or Raynor'll get pissed." The medic didn't even bother to look at him and only replied with a grunt. She had been with his group for far to long not to have become immune to his charm.

* * *

><p>In space above Valhalla a furious battle was taking place between the Raiders fleet and the Dominion one. swarms of wraiths were dissuading any Dominion Vikings from coming to close to either the Hyperion or the Jackson's Revenge. But the battlecruisers in the Dominion fleet just ignored them and continued to unleash their heavy weapons on the two ships.<p>

Matt was pressed hard, making as many tactical moves as he could while still keeping the opponents in the sights of his own guns. "How long until the Yamato is charged again?" he yelled to the gunner.

"Thirteen seconds, Captain."

Matt looked at the tactical readout on the table. "Tell the 'Revenge' to concentrate on that battlecruiser on the far left. it's breaking of and we cant stop them. They are going to tell the Dominion what we are planing and that would ruin our plans."

"Sir, the 'Revenge' just finished charging their Yamato." The ensign who sat at the communications station yelled. They're targeting the fleeing ship right now."

Good, Matt thought. At least they know what to do in a serious combat situation. On the table, the targeted battlecruiser vanished, just as he heard the weapons officer yell that their own Yamato had just finished. "Target the center one now. Fire at will." The Hyperion vibrated a little as the powerful main weapon unleashed it's directed nuclear blast. Another battlecruiser winked out, leaving only three.

"WE ARE TARGETED!" the radar operator yelled and out of the view screen, Matt could clearly see one of the battlecruisers charge it's own Yamato. Though the Hyperion's armor could take massive amounts of punishment, surviving a point blank Yamato was far beyond it's capabilities.

"Brace for impact" he yelled and grabbed hold of the railing of the table. Then he could see several shots rip through the ship, rendering it inoperative and out of sheer good luck the Yamato imploded, completely destroying it.

"Raiders be warned, we are joining you in the 'Loki' so please don't shoot us. but it looked as if you needed some help. Matt couldn't believe his luck, now they had the upper hand on the Dominion fleet. They turned tail and tried to flee but didn't get far as both the 'Revenge' and the 'Loki' fired their canons, destroying the last two ships.

"Good work everyone. Now we need to leave before we loose our moment of opportunity. 'Loki' and the 'Revenge' will jump to Zero and prepare for deployment, I'll take the Hyperion down and pick up Raynor and the 'Odin' so we can get this show on the road." Matt started issuing orders for the Hyperion to land at Raynor's base. The two other ships spun up their warp drives and jumped away, leaving the Hyperion alone.

Once the 'Odin' was snuggly tucked away in the biggest cargo bay and the remaining Raiders had boarded Matt told the navigator to jump to Tarsonis. with careful planning and a bucket of luck, they could deal a critical blow to Mengsk and his Dominion.

Raynor just looked at his very happy Chief Engineer as the squat old man positively danced around the feet of the newest addition to their armory. Now he could spend his time doing what he did the best, namely re-engineer it into something that the Raiders could utilize more easily and a lot cheaper then this monstrosity. At least he would stop pestering Raynor for more funding for his many pet projects. Granted most of those turned out to result in something awesome and devastating for anyone on the opposite side.

"Easy there, Swann. I don't want to have to carry you to the med-bay because you had a heart attack." Raynor yelled jokingly at his friend. "I'll be fine Hotshot, you just worry about keeping us alive and I'll give you new toys to play with."

Raynor entered the Bridge and sat down in his chair. Matt was talking with some of the crew and then walked up to report. "Sir, we sustained some bad injuries fighting off the Dominion fleet. We'll need to stay out of sight later so we don't end up fighting the Tarsonis armada. The Hyperion wouldn't survive very long in any kind of engagement." He then motioned to the holo-table and continued. "I have managed to secure a way to deliver the 'Odin' with Tycus as the pilot. It cost us a lot of credits but now we have front seats for the show."

"Easy there, Matt. We need to be careful here if we want to make it out alive." Raynor observed the UNN towers they needed to raid in order to deliver their finishing blow to Mengsk political career. They would need to capture three towers to get the message out to as many planets as possible. And there were a lot of military bases between the towers making their job harder. He sighed, nothing short of a perfect surprise attack and a lot of luck could turn this endeavor from turning into a bloodbath with the civilian population stuck between them. This needed to be carefully planned.

Near the Zero Deep Space Station, the two ships exited warp space and approached the dock. The station manager, a former SCV pilot from the confederate SpecOps unit ZERO observed the heavy damages on the closest one. He knew that one like the back of his hand, the other one further out was new but it still carried a few scars. "Darn that Raynor," he muttered to himself as he walked towards the docking bay, "can't he play nice with his toys once in a while?"

* * *

><p>AN

I don't feel as if this chapter managed to convey what I wanted to tell, namely what I think Raynor should have done during the Engine of Destruction mission. Why would he only take one of them and then (Optionally) destroy the other. For lore and game play reasons I can understand it, Raynors Raiders consists only of some 40 raiders plus any mercenary groups hired, but still, just leaving an ultra powerful experimental battlecruiser to the Dominion is asking for trouble later down the road. So this is my take on it. One group does the 'steal the Odin' thing and the other goes for the 'Loki'. aaand now Raynor has two powerful toys to play with.

ps. Tell me if I'm messing this thing up as badly as I think I am.


End file.
